Alan Burnham

I like Astrophotography, Meteorology, Spaceflight, Storm Chasing, etc. I love taking pictures of the sky!

[NWS Norman @NWSNorman]

The jet stream typically dies down in the summertime, but today is reaching a bit of a comical level. Our weather balloon that we launched 45 minutes ago is currently at an altitude of about 9 miles up, and is 1 mile northwest of our office.

[Bryan Johnson @bryan_johnson]

The world wants me to die.

My incurable disease diagnosis became global news. It was omnipresent on social media and 1,900 articles were written in a matter of days.

Many were saddened.

However, joy dominated the commentary.

People pointed to schadenfreude, the pleasure of another's failure. Yes, there’s that. There is a special place in people’s hearts that loves to see others fail, especially when that person’s presence threatens their own psychological stability in some way or helps them feel better about themselves.

But, if you look over the social media commentary about me, you’ll see that pattern:

“he deserved it.”

I deserved it because I challenged death. The crowd was running a deeply rooted psychological script that represents the oldest, most deeply embedded stories of human culture.

This was the first story ever written down, 4,000 years ago. Gilgamesh sought eternal life after losing someone he loved, only to have the plant of youth stolen by a serpent as he bathed. Leaving him to accept his mortality.

Asclepius became so skilled at rejuvenation that he raised the dead. As punishment, Zeus struck him down with a thunderbolt to enforce life and death authority.

This is the story of Jesus. Pontius Pilate offered a choice between a thief and the immortalist, and the crowd demanded the execution.

People need this story conclusion to keep themselves sane. The challenger must lose and the loss must appear deserved. It’s a shield of self preservation.

For if death is inevitable, their existence and that of their loved ones is justified and unavoidable. If death is not inevitable, nothing about their reality is safe.

I occupy the same philosophical and archetypal position as Gilgamesh, Asclepius and Jesus.

This statement will draw outrage and accusations of blasphemy, hubris and narcissism. Nevertheless, it’s the pattern that has repeated itself for thousands of years.

Death has been the omnipresent concern of the human race. It encapsulates our greatest fears, joy and curiosities. The discourse around it changes over time; however, the fundamentals remain unchanged.

What’s different about this moment, that is unlike any other moment, is that physical death may no longer be inevitable.

What if I didn’t deserve it?

And what if I am your ally, and not a threat?

[Adam Lucio 🌪️ @AdamLucioWX]

Everytime I see this video my thoughts are

1- AGAIN?! And

2 - It’s still incredibly amazing to me that this process even exists and happens. A cloud that is thousands of feet wide is condensing, stretching and pulling air upwards from the ground hundreds of feet, from a point that’s barely a foot wide.

Like, why, in this case, is it so narrow at the base. We sort of know the answers, but we don’t.

Tornadoes are so unbelievably fascinating.

[Truthful🛰️ @Truthful_ast]

>Straps on Mengzhou with no second stage
>Fly for the first time
>Succesful abort test
>Enters in harsh conditions
>Loses two grid fins
>Lands perfectly first try
>Fly for the second time full stack
>Launch succesfully
>Gets caught by droneship first try

WEAKEST LONG MARCH 10 BOOSTER

[Will Weaver ⛈️ @WillWeatherRVA]

This may be the most chilling EAS message I've ever read. It was transmitted as a large and extremely fast-spreading wildfire races toward Beulah, CO. #AspenAcresFire #cowx

[Rocket Lab @RocketLab]

Rocket Lab is acquiring Iridium Communications Inc – one of the most transformative deals in the space industry.

By combining our launch capability and satellite manufacturing with @IridiumComm’s global satellite communications network and rare spectrum, Rocket Lab becomes a fully integrated, self-launching, tier-1 space power, delivering critical communications capability to millions of users worldwide.

Full details and important information: https://t.co/hj5aWrDPjz

[NWS Detroit @NWSDetroit]

Severe Thunderstorm Warning including Rochester Hills MI, Pontiac MI and Auburn Hills MI until 2:00 PM EDT

[Alan Burnham @alanburnham_]

Measured maximum of 0.75" hail 1.5 miles south of Highland near Milford High School at about 1:00 PM EDT. @NWSDetroit

[NWS Detroit @NWSDetroit]

A Heat Advisory remains in effect for Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw, Wayne, Lenawee, and Monroe Counties today. Heat indices are expected to range between 90 and 100 degrees both Wednesday and Thursday afternoon. #miwx

[博麗神主 @korindo]

今日からsteamで弾幕フェスが開催されてます。東方も虹龍洞以前の作品が30%引きですってよ。持ってないやつがありましたらこの際是非！
弾幕フェスは16日2時までです。

[USGS Earthquakes @USGS_Quakes]

Notable quake, preliminary info: M 6.1 - 104 km WNW of Mantua, Cuba https://t.co/i133yJhiAO

[USGS Earthquakes @USGS_Quakes]

Shaking from the recent M6.1 earthquake offshore of Cuba was felt in Florida, where earthquakes are not commonly felt. Did you feel it? (If you're in the area and did not feel it, that's data too!)
https://t.co/qpvppLHKj2

[The Real Guardrail Guy @theguardrailguy]

Today was the day!

The guardrail that replaced the one that killed my daughter was hit and there was a different outcome this time.

[Ethan Mok @Emokwx]

Anyone ever seen interstate-induced clouds before? Low level CU developed perfectly along major interstates around Houston this morning. Kind of shocking to see such perfectly lined up clouds. #txwx

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

Artificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships, and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean. Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate or even simulate, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational, and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom. #MagnificaHumanitas

[Oliver Bass @BassFromThePast]

And with this, Rocket League officially becomes the most skill-based esport in the world.

The very last element of randomness is gone. Every other title has at least a factor of randomness, RL now has literally none. This is awesome.

[oli @highkeyoli]

minecraft seed hunters have found a seed that has EVERY SINGLE biome AND structure within 1000 blocks of 0,0 (screenshots using voxy to increase render distance)

found by u/ShoowMe7777777
seed: 8500081009970950196

[NWS Detroit @NWSDetroit]

There is a Slight Risk for severe weather today for all of southeast Michigan. A line or broken line of storms will be capable of producing damaging wind gusts, large hail, locally heavy rain, and/or isolated tornadoes. #miwx

[🇺🇸 🦅Detroit Dutch™ SSgt USMC (Ret.) 🇺🇸 🪂 @DetDutch]

From 250 miles above Earth, most of the United States blurs together into a continental mass of brown and green with no obvious landmarks. Then Michigan appears and the confusion stops completely. The mitten shape of the Lower Peninsula surrounded by four of the five Great Lakes is one of the most distinctive geographic features visible from the International Space Station, a natural outline so clean and so recognizable that astronauts have confirmed it repeatedly as one of the clearest views of any state from orbit.

The Great Lakes are what make it work. Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Erie create a water to land contrast that defines Michigan's borders with a precision that no cartographer could improve on. The mitten sits in the middle of all that blue like it was placed there deliberately, which in geological terms it essentially was, carved out by glaciers over thousands of years into a shape that somehow ended up being both geographically functional and immediately identifiable from the edge of the atmosphere.

Michigan residents have been using their right hand as a map their entire lives and that same gesture works from space, which is not something any other state can say. Astronauts have photographed Michigan more than almost any other state passing beneath them because the view rewards it every single time. For a state already sitting on the greatest freshwater system on the planet, being unmistakable from 250 miles up is simply Michigan being exactly what it has always been. Impossible to miss. Even from space.